Quebec plans suit vs tobacco companies: report

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian province of Quebec plans to file a lawsuit against tobacco companies to seek damages for the cost of treating sick smokers, Radio-Canada said on Monday.

The French-language public broadcaster quoted provincial Health Minister Yves Bolduc as saying Quebec could seek an amount that is proportionate to a C$50 billion ($46.7 billion) lawsuit launched last week by Ontario, Canada's most populous province.

Radio-Canada - which said Quebec would formally file its own lawsuit in January - calculated the amount the province would seek at around C$30 billion.

"Our claim is that information was hidden and this led people to continue to use tobacco products. This had consequences, such as enormous health-care costs that we had to bear," said Bolduc.

He put the annual cost of tobacco-related health-care spending at between C$700 million and C$1 billion.

Canada's tobacco manufacturers are all units of foreign tobacco makers, including Philip Morris International Inc, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco Inc.